There is a virtually infinite variety of picture frames on the market. The standard picture frame, at least the kind that is of the standup desktop variety, consists of a piece of cardboard with a back-folding foot or tab which, when folded rearwardly, supports the picture in its upright orientation. The forward panel is then covered with a facing sheet of glass, and a frame of metal or the like surrounds the periphery of both the glass and the facing panel, with a picture sandwiched in between. This type of frame, and a similar frame but absent the glass, pervade the market.
There are other types of frame utilizing a curved, sheetplastic front with tracks defined behind the curved front to receive a photograph when slid in from the top. The plastic of these types of frames is molded and defines an attractive knickknack, with the photograph being the central feature, but perhaps not the most eye-catching part of the entire array.
In addition, in recent years, an array of multi-photoframing structures have become popular. One of these is simply a conventional frame with matting divided up into numerous internal rectangles and circles and other configurations behind which conventionally sized photographs may be pasted to produce a collage effect.
In another type, a transparent plastic cube or other geometric configuration is provided, each face of which will mount a different photograph.
The frames mentioned above which are plastic are either injection molded or vaccum formed, or formed by some other typical plastic-forming process which is expensive, at least in its start-up mode, and is limiting in the product produced. There is a need, therefore, for an attractive, simple plastic picture frame which can be stamped, rather than molded, and produced in a printing-like process and subsequently folded to its picture frame mode. Such a frame would have the advantages of being extremely simple and cheap to manufacture, and could be shipped and stored in flat stacks at costs well below that which would be required to ship and store bulky aggregations of preshaped frames with their support structure.